INE

One thing that never gets old in the wilds is the game of dominance. But this day, I had no time to watch the contest.

The young Rompon twitched its grizzled tail, making a blind wager of its life in front of its opponent. I paid another, close look at the leathery shell shielding on its long back and counted the bony, hornlike projections lined up along its spine. Nope, just four of them. I needed five.

Evening  mist was filling the air swiftly. I had no time to waste. My eyes darted to the young Rompon's opponent—a full adult, or maybe an aged Rompon—now twitching its tail, fearlessly declaring its superiority. It had five fully grown bony projections on its shell. A greedy smile crossed my lips. The wait had been too long. I had to get it over with by this day.

But the age was a problem, and also the reason why I was hoping to capture a younger Rompon. Ageing meant thickened shell. I glanced at the stone pike on my hand as doubt crossed my mind. I had to make a kill with one clean strike. Even as I was invisible to this creature, failing to impede it at the first chance would only work against me. The ambush would alert it, and then, I wouldn't be able to find them until the next time the waters fell from the skies and filled their burrows, forcing them to crawl to the surface.

The younger Rompon moved its fleshy head side to side from under its leathery shell. The older one stepped closer. It seemed too confident, as if it knew it was the winner. I simpered, closing in and hunched over it. Well, this game was mine.

The aged shell was very different than the leathery ones I had encountered until now, things that I could jab my pike with ease and tear the innards. This must be really an ancient thing—the shell looked just as hard as the stone on my pike. Deliberating, I shifted my aim over the elongated neck and rammed my pike over it, slicing through the meat. A gurgled half-screech tore from the creature.

Viscous green matter that smelt like decayed grass splattered from the ruptured flesh. The Rompon began to wriggle under my strength. It wasn't ready to die yet. The damned thing kept threshing its feet about its injured neck. Its claws scraped the fleets of my dress. Anger flared up inside me at the sight of a visible tear on the fabric.

I bloody had one dress!

Gritting my teeth, I ran my hands to the underside of the shell. Finding a tiny gap where the hard shell met the grizzled skin, I yanked it, ripping the whole thing apart. The Rompon stopped threshing and the rest of it slumped to the ground.

I grimaced at the viscous green matter running down on my palms. Anyway, that was worth it. I inspected the horns on the shell in my hand. Often, they'd be flawed by regular dominance fights. But this one was clean. I smiled in satisfaction and rose to my feet.

Something prickled my skin. I ran my eyes around hurriedly. The surrounding was eerily still. It struck me then. This was a new area. There was something very sinister about the place. I could feel it in my bones.

First thing that I noted was that the trees were different. Instead of lush green Marula or the foul smelling Worsbooms, there were palms and plantains scattered about in large numbers. Secondly, the earth was mostly puddles and muddy soil than grass. I was too focused on tracking the scuttling Rompons that I had missed to pay attention on my path. My wandering gaze stopped at a faint sight of a creature standing between the short plantains.

My heart gave an instant flutter. The creature was big, though not as big as the giant Mandrills. I had walked in the middle of the herds, as they strode on their heavy steps, completely oblivious to my presence. But this one was not. This creature… was aware of my presence. It was staring directly at me.

As I watched on, I figured that it was trying to hide itself behind the plantain leaves, but not so much that I couldn't see it. It was faraway and a bit obscure, but I could make out its shoulders. It stood a little hunched, but on two limbs—just like me. Its skin had a dark tone similar to mine. A bi-ped—I remembered Saynab's warnings, these were some handful of creatures in these woods that had the ability to see me. And when I spotted one, the first thing I was supposed to do was—RUN.